Baumann: The joy and anxiety of watching KBO’s return
From SABR member Michael Baumann at The Ringer on May 6, 2020:
When ESPN announced on Monday that it would air live baseball from South Korea, I reacted with knee-buckling ambivalence. The return of live baseball was obviously welcome, even if it aired in the middle of the night and featured teams and players I’d never heard of. But unlike South Korea, the worst is yet to come in the United States—meaning thousands of deaths per day and tens of millions left out of work. Five days ago, a little more than an hour from my home, right-wing activists with assault weapons stormed the Michigan State Capitol in an attempt to force the state government to lift the moderate preventative measures currently in place. Rejoicing in the return of baseball felt like watching Rome burn while Nero played the fiddle 10,000 miles away and broadcast it on Twitch.
And once the appointed hour arrived—1 a.m. Eastern time—ESPN’s game of the night between NC Dinos and Samsung Lions was in a rain delay. Shortly thereafter, another KBO game was delayed due to smoke from a nearby fire. In 2020, nothing works the way it’s supposed to.
Read the full article here: https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2020/5/6/21248854/the-joy-and-anxiety-of-watching-kbos-return
Originally published: May 7, 2020. Last Updated: May 7, 2020.